Pfeiffer Georgi and Fred Wright were crowned national champions as Saltburn hosted two brutal road races in the British Road Cycling Championships.

An attritional women’s race began in Saltburn at 9am with the heat already reaching the high 20s. Attacks came from the off with Team Boompods deciding to go from the flag but it was shortly pulled back.

With one lap raced the breaks began to form, and all the main favourites including Hannah Barnes, Elinor Barker, April Tacey and Georgi were together at the front of the race.

Ellie Perry was the leader after the third ascent of Saltburn Bank, having created a gap of 25 seconds, before Dame Sarah Storey picked up the work at the front of the race and started to push the pace heading into the second hour of racing. 

Anna Shackley had the Under-23s title wrapped up with two laps to go, being one of the group which kept away from the chasing peloton, with Georgi and Claire Steels looking the strongest on the climbs with one lap to go.

Alex Morrice touched wheels with another rider in the group, crashing and losing ten seconds, and an attack from Shackley on the last descent was nullified by Georgi.

With one kilometre to go, six riders were together, but Georgi attacked decisively on the final ascent of Saltburn Bank and came over the line solo.

“It was such a hard course, I can’t believe it, I’m so happy,” said Georgi.

The elite men’s race was as hectic as the women’s, with breaks beginning from the first lap and riders being strung out all over the course.

The main talking point before the men’s race was the absence of favourite and superstar of the sport, Geraint Thomas, but once the action began, attack after attack from the chasing groups meant the race was strung out all over the 18.9km course.

After two laps, the lead group included favourite Wright, of Bahrain Victorious, Oli Rees, Ben Tulett, Owain Doull, Sam Watson of Groupama FDJ and James Knox. 

Crit winner Oli Wood and TT champ Josh Tarling were struggling and tried to reach the front group, but were unsuccessful. Tarling was dropped on the fourth ascent of Saltburn Bank.

To put into context how brutal the course was, after two-and-a-half hours of racing, 98 riders had dropped out of the race. The remaining 52 battled on towards the end.

Mark Donovan of Q36.5 took his chance and attacked the lead group with 62.5 km to go. Donovan laid the hammer down and created a gap of a minute and 16 seconds on the lead group.

However, the WorldTour riders in the group behind decided to pick up the pace and Donovan was caught with 41km to go.

Attacks were plentiful in the final kilometres, with each of Wright, James Knox and Stephen Williams taking turns taking chunks out of each other.
Williams attacked on the penultimate climb but Wright countered and went over the top of Williams to open up a gap of eight seconds.

Knox and Williams worked together, but Wright was thundering home, the lead was slim but all riders were totally focused on the win. 

Wright entered the base of the Saltburn Bank for the final time with only one thing on his mind, crossing the finish line first and that he did.

With his finger pointed to the sky in remembrance of recently deceased team-mate, Gino Mader, Wright crossed the line solo, with Knox of Soudal Quick-step finishing second, shortly followed by Williams of Isreal - Premier Tech in third.

An emotional Wright spoke at the finish line and said. “I still can’t believe it to be honest, lots of emotions.

“I really enjoyed that today, such an attritional race. That was really really special.”

Watson added: “Everyone was in the red today, I was tired from the first lap. The tactics were to not do too much and to get round.”